Monday, May 09, 2011

Something New

Usually when I talk about doing something new, it means I'm working on a new painting. This time not only have I started a new painting, but I'm also working with a new format. In the last couple of weeks I became interested in a circular shaped canvas. Chardin's paintings using this shape or the oval, are some of my favorite works of his career; there's something very dream like about them and also more complete. I wanted to find out if I could work with this shape, and I gave in to my impulse and bought a 12 inch circle. I didn't waste any time, I haven't been excited about a painting this much in a long time; I set up a number of possible arrangements in my kitchen counter, set up my paints and easel and I began work on this still life. What you are seeing is the first layer of paint, the rough lay out of shapes, tones, light and shadow, etc. This fast sketch only uses earth tones, little by little I'll be adding more chromatic colors to make the painting feel contemporary; I love Chardin, but I don't want to copy him. Crossing my fingers this turns out well.

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About Me

"Anything under the sun is beautiful if you have the vision-it is the seeing of the thing that makes it so."
- Charles W. Hawthorne -
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"One of the functions of art is to remind us of common humanity. The artist, like the priest, can sometimes remind us that we are bound by an obligation to one another stronger and more lasting than the bonds of politics or economics."
- John Manchip White, Diego Velazquez: Painter and Courtier -
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"To defend an artist as original says little about his work except that it is in some way different from what preceded it. As such, originality itself is rarely a strong defense, for it is born more of admiration for audacity and perseverance than necessarily of understanding." - James H. Rubin, Manet's Silence and the Poetics of Bouquets -